1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of underwater lighting.
2. Prior Art
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are intended for use in underwater lighting, though as shall be subsequently described, are not so limited. Underwater lighting is commonly used for purposes ranging from swimming pool lighting to multicolor lighting for elaborate and animated water displays. Typically in the prior art incandescent bulbs are used in such applications, with color filters providing the desired color or color wheels providing the desired limited color variations when color is desired.
Incandescent bulbs in underwater lighting tend to have certain disadvantages. In particular, they are not particularly efficient and accordingly give off a lot of heat which must be dissipated. High power incandescent bulbs often require a higher voltage than one would like to use in underwater systems. Finally, incandescent bulbs have a limited life, and the failure of a single light in a sophisticated water display can detract from the overall visual appearance of the display. As a result, efforts have been made to adapt high power light emitting diodes (LEDs) to underwater use. For such purposes, each LED has been fitted with a reflector or refractive lens element to obtain the desired directional characteristics of the LEDs. Such a design, however, results in a large assembly for a given light intensity because of the required spacing of the LEDs to accommodate the reflectors or optical elements.
LED lighting has also been used with non-submersed applications for various lighting requirements. However such lighting tends to be granular in nature because the discreteness of the multiple sources of light in a multi-LED light fixture causes multiple shadows of an illuminated subject to be cast, resulting in a general “fuzzy” look to the lighting. Thus such lighting is generally of poor quality for such purposes as theatrical use, particularly when used to generate colored lighting, where colors are achieved by blending light from different color producing LEDs.